A Climbing Betty's journey to find love & strength in the mountains

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We finally had our first freeze over the weekend. Snow flurries reportedly fell in the area too. By Monday, my Facebook feed was full of photos and videos of folks hitting the opening day of Killington (the earliest resort to open in the entire country) or backcountry stashes across the far north. And yesterday, the Black Dyke on Cannon Cliff saw its first ascent- the unofficial start of winter in the northeast. (Congrats by the way to Majka & Alexa! Not only did they grab the first ascent this year, but I believe they are the first all women’s team to grab the first ascent of the season.) Then today, the high temps topped out above 70. It was a gorgeous day for fall rock climbing.

And I just mopped.

For one, I’m just getting over being sick, so I am way behind in work. (Not to mention that pesky illness ruined my plans to attend this year’s climbing film fest). But very soon, it will be November. And quite frankly, I hate November.

November is part of the dreaded ‘shoulder season.’ Too cold to rock climb, not quite cold enough and not enough snow for skiing. Around Halloween, I put the rock climbing gear away and take up waiting for snow and the start of ski season with the eagerness that would rival a child waiting for the arrival of Santa. It’s usually a long dreary wait that often exceeds my thin reserves of patience.

The other shoulder season is in the spring. But at least April has the decency to yield amazing backcountry corn harvests if you are willing to trek for them. Most Aprils, I put the skis away one weekend, grab out the gear and start rock climbing again the next.

But not November. Oh no, not November.

November is just 4 dreary, dread-filled weeks of nothing but watching the days get ridiculous short.

November makes me cranky. Surly, even.

And this year its worse. Because this year, it started a month early.

Owing to the time away I’ve taken away to look after my husband in the wake of his accident and subsequent rehab, I’ve hardly climbed in the last couple of months. I started off the season on such a strong note- I had high hopes for making a lot of progress. In the end, I don’t think I’ve completed a single “goal” climb this season. Starting next season with the same goals as this one is kind of depressing and hasn’t left me interested in making the most of the what’s left of the season. In fact, I’m quite content to close the book on this season and start on the next winter season. If only the weather would cooperate!

How about you? How do you handle the beautiful nightmare of the shoulder season???

Have you been to the Gunks? Do you know how epic climbing here can be? I thank my lucky stars this is my home crag, but even I haven’t seen it look this sexy before. Give it a watch. Fair warning: probably NSFW if you find beautiful footage of climbers free-soloing classic routes to cause your palms & brow to break out in a cold sweat, your heart rate to increase and your breathing to become more shallow & rapid- necessitating a hasty exit to the nearest bathroom… or supply closet.

Shameless plug- if you do plan a climbing trip here- go over to the App Store and download yourself the Trapps App (and now the Nears App too!). This is really the best ‘guidebook’ to the area. And since you’re carrying your phone with you for all those summit selfies you’ll put on Instagram later, no excuse not to download it.

These days, even the most dirtbag among us has a smartphone. They are so commonplace now that we often take for granted the fact that we have a computer more powerful than the one that orchestrated the moon landing, right in our pockets (frying the family jewels with electromagnetic radiation- oh yeah!). Hopefully, you use all that pocket-power for something more than just organizing all your cat memes in Flickr, or even worse- being an anonymous internet troll on SuperTaco.

Just in case you are one of those trolls who seems to believe that hen-pecking your keyboard is legitimate finger-training for climbing, let me give you a suggestion for something more constructive to do with your soft keyboard….

This summer, I had the privilege of beta-testing the Trapps App, an application functioning as a guidebook to the Trapps Cliff at the Gunks (The Nears and Millbrook are not included, but may be separate apps in the future I am told.) In this post, I’ll review the app based on my experience using it, hopefully convince you to buy the app for yourself!

The app contains route descriptions and topos for 297 different route at the Trapps, so it is not an exhaustive list. However, what this app does better than anything is give you excellent photo topos. From the list of routes, tap a name and a clear picture of the start of the climb comes up, with a line drawn in to guide you where to go. Use the pinch gesture to zoom in or out of the high resolution photo. Tap the photo and the route description comes up. The descriptions are not uniform in the information they provide, (they don’t give too much away) but they will generally give you the most pertinent info- the grades of each pitch, a warning if the crux move is particularly dangerous, if you can set up a top-rope on the climb, etc. A third tap will then take you to an aerial photo of the cliff that will give you a good idea of where the climb is along the cliff, where the 2nd or 3rd pitch of a climb goes and the line of descent. The pinch gesture to zoom in or out works here too. Tapping “back” in the upper left hand corner will take you back through the previous pages. There are also photos with drawn in lines showing the various access trails from the carriage road- an uber helpful feature for visiting climbers trying to navigate their way around.

The clear, high-res photos with drawn-in lines, are what make this app worth the money. Contrast this with the only alternative app for The Gunks, the Mountain Project app. Since the data on the MP app is all user-driven content, photos are simply of climbers on various routes. This means that a.) not all routes will have a photo and b.) photos may be anywhere along the route. If the photo is taken on pitch 3 and you’re trying to find the start of the climb, the photo is not going to be helpful. Also, the route descriptions on Mountain Project are hit or miss, and from my experience, more miss. They are cumbersome to navigate to at best and again, user-driven content may be helpful, may not. The streamlined navigation of the Gunks app will have you doing more climbing, and less tapping and head scratching.

With all this great information literally at your fingertips, you might be tempted to think that the all the adventure is gone. Despite clear topos, the text route descriptions are sparse, for a reason. Though you may know where to go, the developer’s still want you to experience the climb on your own terms. Only the most crucial beta is included: gear protection ratings are absent, unless the climb earns an “R” protection rating.

Particularly if you always carry your phone to/on a climb, this app is more than worth the $14.99* price tag. Is it a complete replacement of the Williams’ guidebook? I would say no and so would the developers. If you climb at the Gunks frequently, I think it is worth investing in both as the Williams’ book contains many more routes, which can be helpful for finding those hidden-away gems while all the classics are mobbed on nice fall weekend. If you are new to the area or just visiting, the Gunks App will definitely get you climbing a bunch of fun routes for however long you stay, with the smallest learning curve compared to the guidebook or the Mountain Project app.

One final editorial note: This app was developed completely independently. No advance was given by a guidebook publishing company and the developers learned to code specifically to bring you this app. They are two local guys, who took the pictures, wrote the route descriptions and verified them by climbing every climb. They invested their whole climbing season into this project and countless hours (and cups of espresso) beyond that into this app. Personally, I think for all they did, they under-priced this app at $14.99. Yes, there are a few mistakes here and there that will be fixed in a future update, but please consider supporting all their hard work with your purchase of this app and remember to leave a good review of the app in the iTunes store. 🙂

Learn more about the Gunks app here. Download it from the app store here.

*I just got the news that the $14.99 price tag is a special introductory price. The price goes up to $19.99 after the New Paltz Film Festival on Saturday, October 11, 2014. Still very much worth it at $19.99, but for those died-in-the-wool dirtbags, if you hurry, you can get the app and have enough leftover for a 6-pack of PBR.

Though I’ve been climbing for over 16 years now, shamefully, it’s only been for the last two years that I have been a member of the American Alpine Club. I joined before my first trip to Rainier primarily for the rescue insurance. Prior to that, I had assumed that membership was really only for alpinists and/or old dudes. How wrong was I?!?! Since becoming a member, I have renewed my membership every year around this time and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Not an exhaustive list by any means, these are my top 7 reasons why AAC membership is worth every penny.

DISCOUNTS! I am a total Pata-holic. I love their stuff and probably have way too much of it. With an AAC membership, I get 20% of regularly priced items on the web. That’s like having a sale everyday of the year! The money I have saved with this one discount alone has been worth to cost of membership. My other favorite discount is a special member’s link to Backcountry.com which gives you 10-30% off most items. And Backcountry.com carries everything!!!! With just these two discounts, membership is really a no-brainer.

Grants. Last year I was selected by the Northeast section to receive a Live Your Dream Grant to climb the Fischer Chimneys route on Mt. Shuksan (read about my trip here and here.) It was my second-ever alpine climb. How cool is that? Little ol’ me, getting a grant to go on a climb? And that’s exactly what is so awesome about the LYD grant program- its for everyday climbers (well, more like the weekend warriors.)

AAC Library. A whole library of climbing literature at your finger tips. You go online, ‘order’ the book you want and they send it you. Super easy. And there’s no late fee like the public library! (Though you should be considerate of others who may be waiting to check out the book as well. And if you keep it for more than a year, they will charge you the cost of the book.)

Rescue benefit. I have not had to use mine, but it does give me peace of mind to know I have this. Ditto for when the hubs is out in the backcountry.

Lodging discounts. I’m watching the AAC campground at the Gunks go in right now. I cannot tell you what a big freakin’ deal that is. Before I moved to the area, I did camp here. I’ve stayed a few nights at Camp Slime, which has great views, but is quite crowded. I remember my first time staying there, we got in late and set up our tent in the dark. There was hardly anyone there at that time. When I woke up in the morning and got out of my tent, I nearly face-planted after tripping on a guy line of another tent set up right in front my tent door. From then on I stayed at the MUA, or as we called it, ‘the multi-abuse area.’ That was funny at the time, but it soon became no joke. The surrounding area became so impacted by the lack of clearly-defined, designated campsites and lack of toilet facilities, that the DEC had to severely limit the camping there. Between the small, cramped size of Camp Slime and the need to limit camping at the MUA, we’ve suffered from a serious lack of places to for visiting climbers to stay. Sure, there are campgrounds and other things scattered about, but some of them are quite a ways away from the cliff and/or expensive. Thanks to the new campground the AAC is helping to build just below the cliff, we’ll have really nice facilities for visiting climbers. Perhaps even more importantly, by having real toilet facilities, designated campsites on durable surfaces and a trail from campground to the base of the cliff, we’ll be able to lessen/concentrate climber impact and be able to preserve some of the wild nature of the area.

Accidents in North American Mountaineering. Though not an exhaustive or all-exclusive list (most incidents are self-reported), it’s really helpful to learn from the mistakes of others. The 2013 ANAM focused on Lowering accidents since they are making up the vast majority of reported accidents. According to Mike Poborsky’s write up, 56% of lowering accidents happen when the rope is too short and the climber either raps off the ends of their rope or a belayer lowers a climber off of the end. It takes two seconds to tie a knot in the end of your rope and prevent this. Would you be more inclined to do that if you knew it could prevent 56% of all lowering accidents? Considering what the cost could be of getting hurt this way- hospital and doctor bills, time off of work, time off from climbing, psychological ramifications- reading ANMA and learning from this could save you so much beyond the paltry sum you pay for membership.

How about you? What’s one of your favorite ‘perks’ of being an AAC member? Tell us in the comments below! Not a member yet? What are you waiting for?!?!? Join today!!!